Christ as the Unfulled Cloth becomes our New Garment by Believing into Him Today

According to Matt. 9 and Luke 5, Christ is the unfulled cloth and our new garment; He is our new garment covering us before God and He’s also our wedding garment for us to participate in the wedding feast, so there’s no need for us to imitate Him: we just need to enjoy Him, love Him, and live one spirit with Him!

Our Lord Jesus Christ is so rich and wonderful! If we read the Bible and pray over God’s word we will be not only impressed with His humanity and His human living but even more, we will be infused with all that He is.

He came as God incarnated to be a man, and He lived a God-man life on earth.

Even though the ones around Him tried to figure Him out, test Him, and then rejected Him, the Lord Jesus still lived one with the Father, expressing God on the earth and speaking the word of God. He came not as a Judge to condemn us; rather, He came as our Bridegroom.

When you go to a wedding, the bridegroom and the bride are the most wonderful persons – at least for one day.

This is who the Lord Jesus was and still is to us. He is not here to condemn us or judge us; He comes to us in love, He is so lovely, and He is so precious.

When we contact Him or see Him, we are exposed of how much we do not match Him, and we apply His precious blood and come to Him to enjoy Him and love Him.

On the one hand, the Lord Jesus is the Bridegroom; on the other hand, we as believers in Christ are being prepared to be part of the Lord’s bride. Hallelujah!

We, who were serpents by nature, having Satan’s nature in us by the fall of Adam, can become the bride of Christ! Wow!

This happens not by us trying to imitate the Lord and working on removing our weaknesses, faults, and mistakes; we become the bride of Christ by cooperating with the Spirit’s work.

The Spirit works in us and around us to cause us to be transformed inwardly and beautified with the riches of Christ so that we may be the bride of Christ.

On our side, we simply need to cooperate with the work of the Spirit. God the Father sent God the Spirit “on an errand” to gain and beautify a bride for Christ, God the Son, and at the end of the Bible, we see that Christ gains His bride! Praise the Lord!

Today we are in the process of being made the bride of Christ; as the bride, we eye not our garment but the lovely face of our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, for we love Him to the uttermost and we want to be just like Him! Lord Jesus, we love You!

Christ was the Unfulled Cloth from His Incarnation to His Crucifixion, and He became our New Garment

In Matthew chapter 9, we see the disciples of John the Baptist coming to the Lord Jesus to ask Him why don’t His disciples fast, even as the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees do.

The Lord Jesus took this opportunity to reveal Himself as the Bridegroom, the unfulled cloth, and the new wine. Wow!

We have seen that Christ is the Bridegroom and that we’re becoming His bride, and now we need to see what does it mean that Christ is the unfulled cloth.

The Lord told the disciples of John, No one puts a patch of unfulled cloth on an old garment, for that which fills it up pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear is made (Matt. 9:16).

What is an unfulled cloth and what does this have to do with Christ and with us?

The word unfulled means uncarded, unsteamed, unwashed, unfinished, and untreated.

It is a piece of cloth that was not fully treated and dealt with so that it can be used to make a garment.

The unfulled cloth signifies Christ from His incarnation to His crucifixion, as a piece of new cloth; He was untreated, unfinished.

He lived a perfect human life and fasted, worked for God, made miracles, and spoke the word of God with power, but it was only after His death and resurrection that He was fully treated and processed so that He may become our new garment.

Christ from His incarnation to His crucifixion was a piece of new cloth, untreated, unfinished.

But then after His resurrection, He became a new garment, as in Luke 5:36.

In this portion we see that no one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment, otherwise, he will tear the new garment and also the patch from the new will not match the old.

In other words, Christ became a new garment in His resurrection, and we cannot tear Him to apply Him to our old garment.

Christ first was the unfulled cloth for making a new garment, and then through His death and resurrection, He was made a new garment to cover us as our righteousness before God so that God may justify us and be acceptable to Him (Luke 15:22; Gal. 3:27; 1 Cor. 1:30; Psa. 45:13-14; Rev. 19:8; Jer. 2:32).

What we have today is not an unfulled cloth – Christ from His incarnation to His crucifixion – as an untreated piece of cloth, something that we cannot wear because it is not finished.

We have Christ as our new garment, for He was processed and consummated to be our righteousness covering us before God.

Even more, He is our subjective righteousnesses being lived out of us to be our wedding garment for the wedding feast of the Lamb. Hallelujah!

To put a patch of unfulled cloth on an old garment is to try to imitate the Lord Jesus in His human living without taking Him as our life and without living in our spirit one with Him.

Today’s modernists do this, and many from the world try to do this also; they try to imitate Christ in the way He lived and the things He spoke, but they don’t believe in the crucified Christ nor do they live by the resurrected Christ as the Spirit.

So they try to put a piece of unfulled cloth on their old garment.

The disciples of John tried to do that; they put a piece of unfulled cloth – the fact that they should be fasting, even as the Lord was frequently fasting – on their old garment, but there was no point, for the holes in their old garment were becoming bigger.

There are holes in our old garment – there are many problems with our living in our natural man, and our attempt to imitate Christ or copy His human living without living by His life and nature is futile, for there will be more holes, more problems.

The Lord Jesus did not want the disciples of John to “patch” their “holes” by imitating the Lord in fasting; rather, He was to become a new garment to cover them and become their living for their objective righteousness and as their subjective righteousnesses.

It is good to have a conversation with the Lord about this and tell Him,

Lord Jesus, we love You. We give ourselves to You. We appreciate and admire Your human living. We want to be one with You in our daily living. Thank You for being not just the unfulled cloth from Your incarnation to Your crucifixion but even more, the new garment in Your resurrection! We take You as our new garment. We want to live one spirit with You today. We allow You to live in us. We take You as our righteousness covering us before God and giving us a standing before our holy, righteous, and glorious God. Amen, Lord, we have no other standing or covering before God except You. We do not want to improve our behavior nor do we want to imitate You outwardly. We just come to You as we are, we believe into You, and we are joined to You as one spirit. We want to live in our spirit today so that You may live in us. Amen, Lord, live in us today. Be expressed through us. We take You as our new garment covering us before God and being wrought into us to be our wedding garment for us to participate at the wedding feast of the Lamb!

Take Christ as our New Garment not by Imitating Him but by Believing in Him and Living one Spirit with Him

On the one hand, Christ is the unfulled cloth, for His living from His incarnation to His crucifixion was perfect but untreated, unfulled.

On the other hand, Christ is the new garment, for after His resurrection God made Christ our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30).

A cloth is a piece of material while a garment is something processed, sown up, and ready to use and wear.

This shows that God went through a process; first, He was the unfulled cloth and then He became the new garment. Hallelujah!

A patch of unfulled cloth sewn on an old garment pulls away from the garment because of the strength of its shrinking, making the tear worse.

To sew a patch of unfulled cloth on an old garment means that people try to imitate what Christ did in His human life on earth without believing in the crucified Jesus as their Redeemer or in the resurrected Christ as their righteousness that they may be justified by God and acceptable to Him.

This is done by today’s modernists who admire the Lord’s human living but do not believe into Him nor do they live one spirit with Him.

Even we as believers in Christ are tempted many times to ask ourselves, What would Jesus do in this situation? What would He speak now? What would His attitude be? Would He do this or that?

On one hand, it is good to stop and ask ourselves such questions; on the other hand, we should not try to imitate or copy the Lord’s human living without believing into Him, that is, without being one with Him so that we may live one with Him.

May we not just try to imitate Christ and speak His words or do what He did without inwardly being joined to Him by faith so that He may speak His words and do His work.

If we imitate Christ outwardly and try to copy what He has done, our old garment will be still old but with more holes, for it is produced by our old natural life.

We can testify that many times, we’re about to lose our temper, and we pray that the Lord would help us not to lose our temper, or we may pray that we would not do this or that, yet we fall into this or that sin.

The more we pray not to lose our temper, the more we lose it, for we try to patch our old garment with an unfulled cloth instead of taking Christ as our new garment. Oh, Lord!

As kingdom people we should not do this; rather, we should take the crucified and resurrected Christ as our new garment to cover us as our righteousness before God.

Our daily living should not be an attempt from our side to imitate the Lord’s living and speak what He spoke; rather, it should be a life by faith, a life of believing into the Lord Jesus and living in the organic union with Him so that it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20).

This means that we need to live one spirit with the Lord, for when we live according to the Spirit, the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us (Rom. 8:4).

When we believe into the Lord and remain in the organic union with Him, we live Him out as our righteousness, and He is our new garment.

Even more, He becomes our wedding garment, the second garment, which is the righteousnesses of the saints.

May we learn to turn to our spirit and live one with the Lord in all things, never trying to outwardly imitate the Lord but always living in fellowship with Him so that He may live in us and our living would be a repetition and duplication of the Lord’s life on earth.

We need to live like Jesus by following in His footsteps, but we do not have to try to “patch our living” by copying what He has done – apart from our organic union with Him.

Throughout history, there have been many Christians who did their best to do what Jesus did and failed miserably.

Our Christian life is a failure whenever we try to imitate the Lord without being one spirit with Him.

The Lord’s name was tarnished and taken in vain so many times by so many so-called Christians who “did works of power in God’s name” and gave lots of money here and did many philanthropic works there, yet they were not one with the Lord.

May we take Christ as our new garment today by living in our spirit to be one with Him organically in our daily life so that He may be wrought into us and lived out of us as our subjective righteousnesses to be our wedding garment qualifying us to attend His wedding feast.

Lord Jesus, we want to follow in Your footsteps and live the same way You lived by being one spirit with You. Save us from trying to imitate what You have done on earth without being one with You. Oh Lord, we believe into You. We believe that You have become our new garment to cover us as our righteousness before God so that we might be justified by God and acceptable to Him. We do not want to imitate or copy what Christ did in His human life in an outward way; we want to live one with You in our daily living. Amen, Lord Jesus, we believe in the crucified Jesus as our Redeemer and in the resurrected Christ as our righteousness! Hallelujah, in Christ we are justified by God and acceptable to Him! Praise the Lord, God’s Christ is our righteousness, our glorious dress! Amen, Lord, keep us one spirit with You today. We want to live You out. We want to live the same way that You live to magnify You by being one spirit with You in all things. We take You as our new garment and as the wedding garment that qualifies us to attend Your wedding feast!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Matthew, msg. 28, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 1, Christ as the Great Light, the One Who Has Authority, the Physician, the Bridegroom, the Unfulled Cloth, and the New Wine.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – New Jerusalem: the Bride’s Clothing, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The new cloth, a portion from, Christ versus Religion, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – The Old Garment, New Garment, and Unshrunk Cloth, sharing via Youtube.
  – The word of righteousness – the kingdom of heavens, article via, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Christ Our Physician, Bridegroom, New Wine, and Shepherd, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Clothing, a portion from, Conclusion of the New Testament, The (Msgs. 079-098), Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – Christ as the Great Light, the One Who Has Authority, the Physician, the Bridegroom, the Unfulled Cloth, and the New Wine, via, Church in Chennai.
  – The marriage garment, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 30, by Witness Lee.
  – What is the Second Garment? More via, The Hearing of Faith.
  – The Fine Linen Garment is the Righteousnesses of Christ Lived Out through Us, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Believing into Christ (1), via, Living to Him.
  – The Ministry of the Spirit and of Righteousness (2) – From chapter two of The Ministers in the Lord’s Recovery – Genuine Ministers of the New Covenant, via, Shepherding Words.
  – Knowing the Truth of God’s Cleansing, via, Bibles for America blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – God’s Christ, who is my righteousness, / My beauty is, my glorious dress; / Midst flaming worlds, in this arrayed, / With joy shall I lift up my head. / Lord, I believe Thy precious blood, / Which, at the mercy seat of God, / Forever doth for sinners plead, / For me, e’en for my soul, was shed. (Hymns #295 stanzas 1-2)
  – All I have in Adam is but sin and death, / I in Christ inherit life and righteousness; / When in flesh abiding, Adam I express, / But when in the spirit Christ is manifest. / When I am in Adam, though I may not sin, / Unto death, a sinner, sentenced I have been; / When in Christ I need not righteously to act, / I’m already righteous, justified in fact. (Hymns #593 stanzas 1-2)
  – Oh, that fine linen garment / Which on that day we’ll wear / E’en now, Lord, work within us / And stitch by stitch prepare. / For this we would redeem / Every moment opportune / For the wedding day that’s coming / Very soon. / Lord, may Your portion in us / Continually increase / That we may be invited / Unto that wedding feast. / And keep us always watching— / At morning, night, or noon— / For the wedding day that’s coming / Very soon. (Hymns #1316 stanzas 2-3)